REFLECTIONS OF YEAR 8 ADVOCACY PRESENTATIONS

Once Mr Dempsey told us we had to present our Advocacy Presentation to family and friends I started to freak out a little bit because I have never really done public speaking before and we had to create a PowerPoint. Once we had started creating the PowerPoint, I found it way easier and because Mr Dempsey guided us on what to do it made it easier. On the night I was very nervous and anxious because my mates would be watching and so would my parents, the only reason I was nervous was because I didn’t want to do a bad job. After the presentation I was so relieved and felt way better because it was over and done with. A positive from the night was that I got to listen to my mates advocating for different things and they were all just as nervous as I was. Overall, it was a great experience with Mr Dempsey guiding the way to improve our presentation skills and will help me in the future with advocating and creating PowerPoints if we ever have to do one.
Jett Abbott

When Mr Valentine told us about the Advocacy Presentation, I was pretty excited. This was because I was going to be working with my mates and I was going to present in front of friends and family. After all the work we did, Lachlan, Jonathan and I thought were ready for the night. When the night rolled around, we were all a bit nervous as we hadn’t presented in front of friends and family before. Although we were nervous, we got up anyway and presented. Looking back on it we shouldn’t have been nervous at all, as we all spoke well. Overall, it was a fun night and it was a great learning experience.
Matthew Trainor

At first, when I was told to create an Advocacy presentation to present in front of parents, teachers and students I wasn’t feeling overly excited. When we picked our group members, I felt a bit better because I had Daniel and Clancy. On the night of the presentation, before we started I was nervous seeing everyone enter the school and that they would be watching. Our group also went first which put a lot more pressure on us. After the presentation I was feeling a lot better because it was over, and I could watch everyone else’s without worrying. A positive I took out of the advocacy night was seeing all the bad things people have done to the earth and that our earth could be much better if we didn’t do those little things. I think overall our group did pretty well on our presentation and we all spoke fairly well.
Max Johnson

When I was told I was going to be doing the advocacy presentation I was annoyed because it sounded serious and that stinks, it was not that it scared me or anything, but I knew I had to do a serious thing with my presentation which I never do. I always add in funny aspects all over the place in my PowerPoints, my speech and even my actions so I’m soooo used to doing that and I have got pretty good at it so having to do a serious one threw me off completely. Alas on the night of the presentation I was feeling ready to get this over with also a bit tired but my highlight on the night was not even in my presentation funny enough it was actually on Aidan’s presentation he called for people to come up and stand over there if you think it’s bad or it’s good I don’t remember what it was something about farming but yeh I went up and I put on my funny socks and made people laugh which I love, doing it really made my night. Working with Mathew and Jono was a good experience they both are good friends of mine and it was fun working with them Mathew definitely helped Jono and I with a lot of things which helped our presentation but overall a fine experience.
Oscar West

Once I was told we were going to make a presentation I felt annoyed and like I didn’t want to do it and thought I would be really nervous on the night. After the presentation I felt like I did really well but before the presentation night I thought my parents would make fun of me. On the night of the presentation, I felt really nervous but excited at the same time because there were all my friends with me and it was going to be a good night. A positive that I took from the advocacy presentation night was that I am a good speaker and good at making presentations and working in a group with others. Another positive is that I want to tell you is that I love creating presentations and making them how I like to design them in my liking, I also like working in groups because you get to enjoy the fun and hanging out with your mates.
Aidan Zammit

When I first heard about the advocacy night I was really worried and stressed. After getting put into a group with some friends we worked on it during class and we rehearsed it multiple times. As the day crept closer the presentation slipped out of my mind until the veritas lesson the day before I was really worried until we went to the library before the night where we rehearsed it around 5 times. The moment arrived and the presentation went swimmingly. Overall this was a good opportunity to voice some of my concerns and I really enjoyed making the presentation it also helped with my collaboration skills helping me work better with my friends it also improved my public speaking and also improved in my design skills in making most of the presentation, I learnt how to make it look good.
Felix Kurmann